


down on your luck (turn it around)

by johnnlaurenss



Series: turn it around [4]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: @ the author chill, Christmas, Eliza is a saint, Feel-good, Fluff, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, John has a bad day, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, alex is a good boyfriend, fluffiest of fluff, honestly, this got out of hand
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2016-11-20
Packaged: 2018-09-01 04:24:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8607742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/johnnlaurenss/pseuds/johnnlaurenss
Summary: "John Laurens is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.And he is not referencing the children's book because that would imply that he spends all of his free time with children (which, albeit, is true) and is therefore lame. So he most definitely is not referencing that god awful book. He's just having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day." ***In which John works at the orphanage, bad days are bound to happen, and revelations are spoken





	

John Laurens is having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

 

And he is not referencing the children's book because that would imply that he spends all of his free time with children (which, albeit, is true) and is therefore lame. So he most definitely is not referencing that god awful book. He's just having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

 

It didn’t start out terrible. No day can start off terrible when it starts out with a wake-up blow job by sex god Alexander Hamilton. No, it was as soon as he left his blissful home, unaware, that his day began to turn to shit. It took him far too long to catch a cab to work, traffic was unbearable because of the snow. Eliza was struggling to keep two kids from fighting while also trying to rock one of the infants to sleep. Peggy apologetically kissed John’s cheek and left as soon as he arrived, leaving John and Eliza by themselves to take care of the babies. It’s nothing they haven’t done before—but today it seems all of the babies are riled up and ready to argue at the drop of a hat. The oldest kid at the orphanage refuses to listen to John asking her to help him make breakfast for the younger kids. She only starts to listen when Eliza tells her it’s time to start helping out. John helplessly tries to wrangle two six year olds into their seats when breakfast is ready, and one of them punches his nose while fighting against him.

 

When he’d finally gotten all the babies fed and dressed and settled in for quiet hour, he heads to the office and starts in on the giant pile of paperwork. Angelica ducks in a short while later and informs him that she can’t teach today because she has a court case that’s calling her name, which means John has to take over on lessons for the day. He gets more frustrated when he comes across the files for two of the kids that were being adopted—a quick glance and he realizes both of the adoptions have fallen through. He’s the one who has to tell the kids that they aren’t getting adopted anymore, and he does, after lunch. They cry and cry and cry, and they tell John that it’s his fault and he blames himself too, even though he knows it’s not his fault.

 

At dinner, some of the babies get in an argument and it ends in a food fight that John has to stop because Eliza is dealing with a fussy baby. The kids all yell at him and John tiredly tells them to put their dishes in the sink. One kid says, “Why are you the one in charge? It isn’t _fair_ , we don’t _want_ you in charge.” It cuts John right through the heart.

 

**To: Baby Girl <3**

[7:56] ARRHGHHHDHHHDHDJDKDKDK

**From: Baby Girl <3**

[7:57] awhhhhhhhhh my love <3<3<3 :(((((((( bad day???

 

A kid at the orphanage throws up at him as he texts Alexander.

 

**To: Baby Girl <3**

[8:02] while reading your text one of the babies vomited on me

**From: Baby Girl <3**

[8:02] ew

[8:02] don’t come home tonight without a shower :)

**To: Baby Girl <3**

[8:03] eat a DICK ALEXANDER

**From: Baby Girl <3: **

[8:04] i will not be doing anything like that tonight if you come home without a shower ;)

 

Eliza walks by and notices John casually banging his head on a wall. "John?" He pointedly does not turn to face her, because if he does she will see his vomit shirt and then she'll ask, and then John will be forced to tell her about the worst day to happen to anyone ever and he is _not above crying_ at this point. He knows that Eliza has also had a stressful day, and he doesn’t want to add his crap to it. He does stop hitting his head on the wall, though, because it's already starting to give him a migraine.

 

"I hate my boyfriend," he hisses. He needs _comfort_ , dammit, but Alexander has a one track mind and John is _tired_.

 

Eliza tuts. "No, my dear, you don't, and there inlays the problem." She pats his cheek gently, then her nose crinkles as she glances at his shirt. "I do believe a shirt of either yours or Alexander's was left in the office, after his last _visit_ here. Go ahead and change, John, then after we put the babies to sleep you can go home."

 

She winks at him conspiringly, and John doesn't even have enough energy in his heart to act scandalized at the way she implies _visit_. Eventually he does make his way to the office, pointedly ignoring the flush that rises on the back of his neck when he thinks about just what _did_ occurre after Alexander's last visit here. They didn’t just leave behind a t-shirt—John’s pretty sure a scrap or two of his dignity is left lying in the dusty corners of the office. He finds the shirt, folded nicely and waiting for him on his chair, and he thinks that even if this day is the worst of all days that at least Eliza Schuyler is a saint.

 

**To: Baby Girl <3**

[8:21] saint eliza says stop being rude to me bc you love me

**From: Baby Girl <3**

[8:23] you’re a LIAR bc my wife eliza TEXTED ME and told me to take care of my love today bc she caught you hitting your head on a wall and that you were sad and deserved happiness

[8:23] which is all true of course you deserve all the happiness my love my love

**To: Baby Girl <3**

[8:25] still mad at you

[8:25] <3 my alexander

**From: Baby Girl <3**

[8:31] Through the good days, and the bad. Forever yours, my love. <3

 

It’s just him and Eliza at the orphanage until Peggy gets home for the night shift. John feels bad, some nights, leaving Peggy and Eliza even if they live there. Hell, he probably would live there, too, if he and Alexander hadn’t bucked up and decided to move in together. The orphanage is Eliza’s pride and joy, her everything, in the same way that Alexander’s library is his everything. And John is beyond grateful for her allowing John to work with her, partner with her on her pride and joy, for Peggy and Eliza and even Angelica reluctantly accepting him into their home and their family with loving arms. He owes everything to them. So some nights he feels bad, leaving them even if it is in their home, and he tries to overstay his shift and do everything so they don’t have to.

 

And he sighs dramatically when he thinks about all the work he’s still going to have to do before he actually leaves. They’ve only got about fifteen babies right now, ages ranging from the two newborns to the twelve year old who follows Eliza around like a puppy dog. John loves them all. Even on his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, his babies are his _world_.

 

It goes:

_1.) The babies_

_2.) Alexander_

_3.) Madame Terry’s Shrimp and Grits_

_4.) Social Justice_

 

John knows how his priorities go. And Alexander tells him happily that he’s glad to come in second if it’s to the babies.

 

And as much as he loves his kids, all fifteen terrors, John wishes right now that they were not his number one priority just so he could go home and cuddle his boyfriend and forget about this bad day. But he has to clean them up and put them to bed, and tidy up the orphanage and go through paperwork with Angelica so Eliza doesn’t have to worry about it, all the legal stuff and adoption stuff that makes Eliza sad. She loves the kids so much, and she hates to see them leave even if she is thrilled for them. And he works on it so she doesn’t have to.

 

“John?” a small voice asks, and John turns to see one of his kids standing in the doorway—the same one who’d thrown up on him earlier. John is still holding his clean shirt, but he drops it apprehensively.

 

“Theo,” he says, and she stares at him with her big, wet eyes. “What are you doing, _niña_?”

 

“Sick,” she whimpers, all sad and small looking. John’s face crumbles. He quickly discards the vomit shirt and puts on the new one, then opens his arms to her. She toddles over to him. “Sick on John.” Theo starts to cry.

 

“Nonsense, _querida_ ,” John hushes her, scooping her up into his arms. Theo’s still really a baby, halfway between two and three, and she’s still so little. She came to them during a storm, just a little baby sitting in her seat with her fist in her mouth. John remembers getting her call at 3am, remembers blearily driving to the hospital with only the thought of  _“left alone because of the rain_ ” and thinking that he couldn’t leave her alone either. He remembers coming into the hospital, Theo’s social worker sadly looking at him and handing him the file, and he remembers scooping Theo into his arms and knocking on the orphanage’s door so early in the morning. He’s attached to her, overly so, and Alexander teases that it’s because John so closely correlates Theo’s story with Alex’s own. But John loves her anyway. She’s one of his babies. “Let’s get you cleaned up, yes? Clean clothes will make you feel better, then we’ll go to sleep and the morning won’t feel sick anymore.”

 

Theo nods helplessly and John strokes her hair. As they walk through the halls, he collects the other stragglers and wriggles them into the bathrooms to start getting ready. Theo coos sadly on his shoulder while he helps the other babies get ready. Then he puts her in in a bath and gently scrubs her, while Eliza works on the twins next to him and smiles.

 

“Has your day gotten better, John?” she asks.

 

Theo takes that moment to throw up on him again.

 

John sighs.

 

* * *

 

Eliza finally kicks him out about an hour after they put the babies to bed. He’s trying to work through some more legal stuff but Eliza comes in and smacks the backside of his head. “You’ve had a hard day, John Laurens. Stop giving yourself hard work and _go home_.”

 

John stubbornly stares at the paperwork in front of him, chewing on his lip. Eliza sighs, not amused. She pushes him out of the chair and towards the door. “It’s _cold_ outside, John, it is _winter_ and it is only going to get colder, and Alexander is waiting for you so please go home.”

 

“Peggy isn’t here yet,” John says dumbly. Eliza throws his coat at him.

 

“I can handle myself,” Eliza tells him firmly. “It’s time to go.”

 

She bundles him up like he’s one of the babies, makes sure his scarf is tucked into his coat and that he has his mittens. She tucks a stray curl back into his hood, and smiles at him softly when she’s finished bundling him. “Be safe, darling, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

 

“Hey,” he says gently, and Eliza peers at him. “Best of women.”

 

Eliza shakes her head and laughs, a little. “You and Alexander are one in the same,” she muses, then she’s ushering him out of the door and into the biting cold. John salutes her lazily before stepping out into the snow, and—

 

Slipping on a damn patch of ice.

 

“God _fuck_ ,” he shrieks.

 

John despises _everything_.

 

**To: Baby Girl <3**

[9:07] I DESPISE EVERYTHING

 

“ _John_!” Eliza shouts, rushing to help him up. He stops her before she starts to slip, too. She has this sad look on her face as she looks down at him. He fell sideways, right onto his hip, and struggles to get up without slipping again. “Oh, sweet John, this day just isn’t giving you a break, is it?”

 

He finally shimmies his way over to a patch of sidewalk that isn’t covered in ice. “Cover this with rock salt before Peggy gets home. She’s wearing heels, she’ll break her leg.”

 

“John,” Eliza says, but he’s waving and making his way to the road. He hails a taxi and climbs in, realizing too little too late that he left _both_ oh his vomit shirts in the office. John makes a mental note to get them tomorrow, then lets the day melt from his shoulders into the cushions. He drearily offers his address to the driver and lets his eyes drift.

 

**From: Baby Girl <3**

[9:09] John. I love you.

**To: Baby Girl <3**

[9:14] i despise everything but you.

[9:15] <3<3<3

**From: Baby Girl <3**

[9:15] <3

 

The driver calls out, “Hey, buddy, we’re here,” a little while later, waking him up. John groggily makes his way out of the car and clambers onto the sidewalk. He’s careful to watch for more ice, his hip still throbbing and already starting to bruise. It’s warm inside the lobby, a nice change from the bitter cold outside, and it feels and smells so much like home that he can’t help but unwind a little bit.

 

It’s an older building, he and Alexander have lived there for about nine months now. The building smells old, smells like it’s been inhabited by a variety of people and stories. At first it used to bother John, it used to make him wonder what kind of history he was moving into. But now, it just makes him feel at home. He trudges up the stairs quickly, just wanting to be inside his apartment and to plaster himself to Alexander and let the day melt away.

 

His keys jingle when he puts them in the lock, Alexander’s keychain brushing against his palm. John is finally able to unlock the door, and he swings it open and finds—

 

The smell of smoke is the first thing that hits him.

 

“Alexander?” John asks, alarmed. He hears Alexander’s pitiful cry coming from the direction of the kitchen, and quickly walks inside to find him.

 

Alexander is helplessly putting out a fire on the kitchen stove, and he wails when he sees John.

 

“I was trying to make you a nice dinner because you had a bad day but I’m not a cook and I was lying to myself and I set the spaghetti on fire, _how do you set spaghetti on fire_ , and now you’re home and the house is on fire and I’m a terrible boyfriend,” Alexander wails. John blinks.

 

Then he starts to laugh.

 

“ _It’s not funny_!” Alexander cries.

 

John reaches for the phone and orders takeout.

 

* * *

 

Later, after the smoke smell has left the house, and the takeout has come and been eaten, Alexander cleans up while John takes a quick shower to rid himself of the lingering scent of vomit Alexander swears he can smell. Alexander is already in bed with his laptop, writing, when John gets out, and John unceremoniously plops into bed next to him. To his surprise, Alexander immediately closes the laptop and wraps himself around John.

 

“Oh, aggressive spooning,” John says.

 

“I’m an aggressive person,” Alexander tells John’s shoulder.

 

“Boy, do I know it,” John teases, sighing dramatically. Alexander squawks and pinches John’s stomach. “Hey, watch it.”

 

“That didn’t even _hurt_ , you have _rock hard abs_ ,” Alexander growls, nipping at John’s shoulder. He smooths the skin with a kiss, then continues kissing all the freckles on John’s shoulder and upper back.

 

John sighs, relaxing into the touch. “You’re affectionate tonight,” he mumbles tiredly.

 

“Am I aggressive or affectionate, I can’t be both,” Alexander breathes, and it tickles John’s skin. “My love has had a hard day. I am here to take care of him. Let me take care of you.”

 

“Alex—” John tries to say, but Alexander hushes him.

 

“Let me take care of you,” he whispers again, curling up against John’s back. The touch is insanely comforting, John immediately leaning back into it and letting the day melt away. Alexander’s hands are splayed over John’s hips, his mouth kissing and nipping at a spot on John’s neck, but it’s not overtly sexual. It’s soothing, and John can physically feel his stress melting away.

 

He’s halfway between asleep and awake when he realizes Alex is singing quietly in his ear.

 

“ _Please have snow, and mistletoe,_ ” Alexander hums, and the low timbre of his voice rumbles through John.

 

“Christmas music?” he hears himself ask quietly. Alexander chuckles but doesn’t stop singing.

 

“ _And presents under the tree,_ ” he continues. John lets it pass, tells himself Christmas is a few weeks away and that this gesture is sweet, and Alexander’s voice is nice. “ _Christmas Eve will find you, where the love light gleams. I’ll be home for Christmas—if only, in my dreams._ ”

 

Alexander’s voice is _nice_. John never really noticed before. Alexander doesn’t usually sing—rapping is more his style, as he likes to say as many words as possible. But his voice is nice, soft even, and it’s warm and it makes John’s bones all gooey and soft and he’s _happy_ for the first time since this morning. Alexander’s voice is like coming home _all over again_ , and John is inexplicably happy that his boyfriend can do this, that he can make John feel at home and forget about his bad days.

 

His boyfriend texts him reassuring things at work and checks up on him through his coworkers, and tries to make a nice dinner and pays for takeout when it fails, and puts on John’s favorite television show to cheer him up, and puts his laptop away when John comes to bed even though John _knows_ he wants to be writing right now, and aggressively spoons him into relaxations and _sings in his ear_. John hasn’t been this happy since—ever, he thinks. He didn’t even know it was possible to _be_ this happy. A few years ago had seen John thinking he’d be forever stuck in South Carolina, forever trapped under his father’s hand, never able to truly be himself.

 

But instead he’s _here_ , in this home he built with the _love of his life_ , who is comforting him on the worst day he’s had in a long time. And John begins to realize that this day may actually be one of the best he’s ever had.

 

He turns in Alexander’s arms so that they’re face to face. Alexander stops singing and John takes the moment to kiss him, truly and slowly, wrapping his arms around Alexander. It’s lazy and it’s domestic and it’s everything John never expected to have, and he starts to cry under the weight of the emotion of it all.

 

“John?” Alexander asks, sounding panicked. He kisses the tears away and John begins to giggle.

 

“I love you,” he says earnestly. “With my whole heart. I love this life we’ve carved out for ourselves, here. I love my job, I love that you love your job. I love the babies, even when they throw up on me. I love that our kitchen is going to smell faintly like smoke for probably the rest of forever, I love that the takeout guy knows us by name. I love you. I love _you_.”

 

Alexander is smiling radiantly at him. His whole face is lit up by the immensity of it, John’s confession, and John can feel the love radiating off of him. “And you say I’m the one with the way with words,” he teases. His voice is so _soft_. “I love you too. More than I ever thought imaginable.”

 

“This has been the best day,” John whispers. Alexander puts a hand on John’s cheek and smiles. “I know I said it was the worst day, and I really thought it was, but everything that happened seems so trivial now. My hip is throbbing, I have two shirts covered in vomit at work, we had two adoptions fall through. So much happened today but I’m so _happy_. You have made me happy, Alexander, and it’s a happiness I never expected I would have.”

 

“If I could show you a sliver of the happiness you fill me with, it would overwhelm you,” Alexander murmurs back. “You’re everything.”

 

“You’re everything,” John agrees, and Alexander kisses his nose.

 

He falls asleep content.

**Author's Note:**

> i am no longer an active part of the hamilton fandom, but if you need: you can find me on [tumblr](https://feuillyys.tumblr.com) crying abt les mis or on [twitter](https://twitter.com/tannscotts) posting about various things.
> 
>  
> 
> comment, kudos, bookmark below!


End file.
